- Women have increasingly taken up the role of managing and maintaining the agricultural lands, often with more responsibility but without a corresponding rise in control, assets or decision-making power.
- Maharashtra’s Women Farmer’s Empowerment Act 2026 is a powerful example of what can happen when political will and a clear understanding of why empowering women matters, writes the author of this commentary.
- Under the Act, women engaged in agriculture or allied activities will formally be recognised as farmers, even when they do not own the land. This will open doors for many women who sow, tend, harvest and manage our agri-foods systems but are often left out of the formal definition of a farmer.
- The views in this commentary are those of the author.
On October 2, Maharashtra is set to begin issuing the Women Farmers Certificates (WFCs) under the newly enacted Women Farmer’s Empowerment Act 2026. The certificates will formally recognise women engaged in agriculture or allied activities as farmers, even when they do not own the land.
The WFC will open doors for lakhs of women who sow, tend, harvest and manage our agri-foods systems, as well as livestock, poultry and fisheries, but are often left out of the formal definition of a farmer. Maharashtra has shown political will and a clear sense of urgency in bringing women farmers’ needs into the spotlight and leading by example.
Feminisation of agriculture
We have been witnessing feminisation of agriculture for some time now. As men move to non-farm jobs, women have increasingly taken up the role of managing and maintaining the agricultural lands. But this has often meant more responsibility without a corresponding rise in control, assets or decision-making power. Without land titles, they also struggle to access critical resources such as credit, water, technology and extension services, reducing them to labourers in a sector they largely sustain.
Nationally, women make up close to 60% of the agricultural workforce as reported by the Periodic Labour Force Survey and shared by the Union Minister of State for Agriculture, Ramnath Thakur recently in Parliament, but they hold less than 15% of land titles. In Maharashtra, 82% of the rural female workforce is engaged in agriculture, yet women hold only about 15.5% of operational farmland. Empowering women farmers through law is therefore an important first step.
![Maharashtra formally recognises women farmers regardless of land ownership [Commentary]](https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2026/09/26113827/Potato_harvest_in_Himachal_Pradesh_India_2011-768x512.jpg "Maharashtra formally recognises women farmers regardless of land ownership [Commentary]")
Maharashtra has often demonstrated the change that can follow with such empowerment. For instance, in Vidarbha, one of the regions most affected by agrarian crisis, the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) worked with women farmers in Wardha and Yavatmal districts under the Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana (MKSP) initiative, which went on to become a national programme under the NRLM. It focused on vulnerable groups, including widows of farmers affected by agrarian distress. The programme combined sustainable agriculture practices with leadership training and collective organisation in the form of local collectives, or samitis, enhanced their access to knowledge, resources, and institutional support. Gradually, it helped women assert their identity as farmers rather than invisible workers.
The lessons from MKSP were clear: when women receive support, agriculture becomes stronger. Women farmers are quick adopters of practical solutions, despite their lack of formal education. Training in climate-resilient farming, resource management, and drudgery-reducing technologies is not merely technical, it is deeply empowering for them. When scientific knowledge is combined with women’s own lived experience, better decisions follow.
Collective institutions also matter. Agricultural markets, particularly mandis, are still male-dominated spaces. Women also frequently face barriers such as poor mobility, lack of market and price information, and inadequate infrastructure, such as storage and processing facilities. This pushes them into distress sales through middlemen. Self-Help Groups (SHGs), cooperatives, and Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), can help women overcome these barriers by improving access to credit, inputs, markets and leadership opportunities.
Over the years, MSSRF has done extensive work with collectives such as FPOs and SHGs across several states. The impact of these efforts is visible on the ground. Support for diversified livelihoods including livestock rearing, fisheries, and value-added processing has improved incomes and enhanced resilience. Women-led enterprises in post-harvest processing have created new routes to financial independence. As women gain recognition for their economic role, the larger promise of gender justice moves closer.
Climate change makes the case for women farmers even stronger. With fewer assets and weaker safety nets, women are often the first to feel the impact of drought, heat and crop loss. Yet, they are also among the strongest drivers of adaptation. Programmes in climate-resilient agriculture show that when women combine traditional wisdom with modern science, they can lead sustainable resource management from seed conservation to eco-friendly farming practices.
Maharashtra takes lead
The journey towards the Maharashtra Women Farmers Empowerment Act began with a meeting with the Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in September 2025. Soon after, MSSRF and the Government of Maharashtra formalised a partnership with a Memorandum of Understanding to work together towards this objective.
MSSRF then formed a technical advisory group, and the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy came on board as the legal drafting partner.
What makes this legislation significant is the process through which it has been shaped. Women farmers were at the heart of the consultations, alongside civil society organisations, farmers network, bankers, lawyers, researchers and frontline government officials.
The consultations began in Mumbai in January 2026 and continued through regional meetings in Pune, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, and Nagpur. Each round of consultation brought new feedback and suggestions, helping shape and strengthen the draft Bill.
The women farmers spoke about how they were unable to access many government schemes and subsidies as initiatives under the Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA), and others are linked to land ownership. Access to schemes such as subsidised pumps, irrigation subsidies, crop insurance, livestock insurance, Kisan Credit Card, and access to agricultural credit were hard to come by. They also spoke about being left out of the Agristack, the digital database for farmers that is based on land records alone.
Other suggestions included lowering interest rates for credit taken in women’s names or amending the existing Lakshmi Mukti Yojna to incentivise families to add women’s names on family land records. They highlighted that PM-KISAN Yojna is meant to benefit farmer families, however, requires a farmer ID that is usually linked with men’s bank accounts, thereby reducing women’s direct access to such benefits. After several rounds of discussion and revision, the Bill was approved by the Cabinet and tabled in the Legislative Assembly during the monsoon session.
On July 2, 2026, the Bill was passed unanimously in the Legislative Assembly and subsequently in the Legislative Council. From the first meeting in September 2025 to the unanimous passage of the Bill in July 2026, the process took just 10 months. It is a powerful example of what can happen when political will and a clear understanding of why empowering women matters.
Key highlights of the act
The Act broadens the definition of agriculture and farmer to include any person who is engaged in crop husbandry, animal husbandry, poultry, fishery, agroforestry, vermiculture, mushroom cultivation, primary processing, etc. either as owner or labourer.
Defining ‘farmer’ was crucial: it had to go beyond land-based cultivators to include the many ways women actually work in agriculture. The National Policy for Farmers (2007) offers a more holistic definition, centred on the work performed rather than on land ownership. Using this definition allowed focus on what women do in farming, not just what they own.
The Act also makes provision for a Women Farmer Empowerment Cell at the State level, a State Level Monitoring Committee to oversee and monitor implementation of the law, a Women Farmers’ Database that includes information of every woman farmer to whom a WFC has been issued, and Women Farmers’ Assistance Officers at each district and block of the State to assist women in obtaining WFCs and guide on other entitlements.
For many rural women in Maharashtra, the Act can enable extension and training in climate-resilient practices that improve both productivity and nutrition, skill acquisition and access to entitlements. What is available under existing schemes must be ensured, and new schemes will also have to be designed. The certificate alone might not remove the barriers that have existed for decades. If the policies and systems governing services like credit, insurance, government programmes, and market opportunities, recognise women as farmers and accept the certificate as proof of their farmer status, a truly new chapter can begin for them.
But more importantly, this Act will change who we see as a ‘farmer’. For too long, the image of a farmer has been that of a man working in a field, even though the reality is far more diverse. A farmer is also a woman working in the field. A farmer is also a woman or man engaged in poultry, fisheries, livestock rearing, beekeeping and a range of other activities that drive our food systems.
However, recognition alone is not the same as ownership. For this Act to bring in real transformation, states must embed gender-equitable land governance within their revenue and land administration frameworks, including the provision and enforcement of joint land titles. Legal rights over land ensure decision-making authority even when the woman exits agricultural work, marries again, or no longer resides within the household – all of which remains outside the scope of the WFC. It provides women with negotiating power from a position grounded in entitlement rather than conditional support.
Delinking a farmer’s identity from land ownership is an important first step. The next crucial step is to build awareness about the law and the entitlements the Act provides. As Maharashtra prepares to issue the first WFCs, we must hear from the ground how women farmers are using these new rights and opportunities to improve their lives and livelihoods.
The real test will be in the implementation of the certification system to offer a pathway to stronger rights rather than serving as an end point in itself. The task now is to ensure that the Act translates into meaningful change on the ground, and its success inspires others states to follow Maharashtra’s lead.
Banner image: A farmer grazer her cattle. Image by Mahesh Maske.
Dr. Soumya Swaminathan is the Chair at M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation.
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